Microchannel silicon devices for the LHCb experiment

The University of Manchester and the University of Oxford are UK collaborators on the LHCb experiment, which operates at CERN. An important LHCb subdetector is the Vertex Locator (VELO) that is, like many parts of the LHCb experiment, due to be replaced and upgraded during a shutdown in 2019-2020. The VELO subdetector comprises 52 modules each of which is instrumented with an array of particle-detecting ASIC chips. All the modules sit in vacuum so the active cooling must occur by conduction. Active cooling will be...